Sam welcomes everybody to the show and says it will be a good episode this week. He then gives a rundown of what to expect on this week’s State of Wrestling.

Sam gives an introduction to this week’s guest, Alexa Bliss. He believes that she is more advanced than most on the roster and says this is the first time he has ever interviewed the current Raw Women’s Champion.

Alexa Bliss Interview

Alexa says she is going to wrestle in Japan soon and says she has always wanted to do that and is very excited about it. She says she grew up pretending to be the Hardy Boyz and Lita and now she gets to work with them and it’s amazing to her.

Early Experiences

Sam brings up the ‘My Daughter is a WWE Superstar’ video the company aired and asks what it has been like going from that to a top star. Alexa says there were only five or six girls when she started in NXT and she remembers being blown away by how much the others already knew compared to her.

Alexa believes the moment everything clicked was when she became the Smackdown Women’s Champion. She says that gave her confidence as there were lots of things she never accomplished in NXT such as a TakeOver match or a championship run.

She believes she was one of the most underwhelming drafts when she was called up but was determined to kick the doors down when she got to Smackdown.

Sam brings up how she naturally deals with the ‘What?’ chants. Alexa says there was a promo she did and the crowd said ‘What?’ so many times she naturally got hot and told them to stop. That didn’t work so she knew a new method would be needed.

That is why she changed her speech speed and let the fans have their moment and then quickly turn it on them.

New Pressure

Sam asks Alexa if she now feels extra pressure given her status in the company compared to when she felt like an underwhelming draft choice. Alexa says she has the mentality that if she leaves Raw as a better performer each week then she is happy and just wants to better herself.

Alexa says she was given the advice that it is not a sprint it’s a marathon, which she now remembers and says she has learned a lot in-ring from Bayley and learned about character from Blake and Murphy.

Sam wonders what schedule is more difficult between the main roster and NXT. Alexa says there are difficulties with both and they are equal in their own ways with NXT being very demanding and the main roster not giving you much time at home.

Unfinished business in NXT

Sam then asked Alexa if there are any goals she wishes she hadn’t skipped in NXT. Alexa says she was happy to be drafted but she wanted to accomplish other things in NXT to prove to herself that she could do it. But she got to be at WrestleMania as the champion and says she wouldn’t trade that for any other goals she might have had. Alexa says when she first came out in Orlando she just took everything in on her walk down to the ring as it is a moment that can never be duplicated.

This is Your Life

Sam asked Alexa what she felt about the controversial ‘This is your life’ segment, which drew a giggle and a heavy sigh from the champion. Alexa says she can hang her hat on the fact she had the worst segment in Raw history.

She says she remembers thinking when the crowd chanted “boring” she started just playing with the guest’s names and messing with the people’s names to try and have more fun with it and lighten the mood. Alexa feels it could have gone a lot worse.

Going into the segment she felt it wouldn’t be that bad. Alexa said she is of the mentality that it is a group effort whether a segment is great or poor, as she is only as good or bad as the people she is working with.

Alexa thought it was very funny she got to suggest having a “This is Your Life” segment about her and having Kurt Angle shoot it down. It proved they can just joke about it.

Women’s Money in the Bank

Sam moved the conversation on to the recent Women’s Money in the Bank and asked Alexa her thoughts on it. She says she was super excited for the women involved but wishes she could’ve been a part of the match.

However, Alexa did note that she wouldn’t like to be slammed on a ladder. Alexa said she called the finish with James Ellsworth helping Carmella but admitted she was very shocked that it actually happened but she was happy for Carmella.

Alexa did say she was very disappointed that the match ended with a man winning as this was a historic moment for women and she wants Carmella to win the rematch.

Sam asks how Alexa’s parents feel about her being on the road a lot. Alexa stated it is tough on her mom as they are like best friends but said that she helps look after her dogs and they always hang out when she comes home.

Alexa spoke about being in a table match and said D-Von Dudley was helpful in giving advice about working out the stipulation.

Sam tells Alexa he constantly gets asked to interview her and plugs WWE’s upcoming Madison Square Garden show which Alexa is working. That brings an end to the interview.

End of Interview

Sam says he loved having Alexa on the podcast and says he doesn’t believe she has hit her peak yet. He says he will definitely have her back on in the future as there was so much he didn’t get into.

Sponsor Ads

Sam mentions the new Netflix show Glow, and says it is worth watching. He said he was impressed with the way wrestling was portrayed on the show and says it wasn’t condescending and that it was real.

He believes non-wrestling fans will get a kick out of this show and advises people to watch. When wrestling goes mainstream it is a good thing for everybody.

Sponsor Ads

State of Wrestling – James Ellsworth

Sam starts off by saying he can’t slam the decision because he advocated for it three weeks ago on the podcast. He agrees it doesn’t send the greatest message but says we are all now so focused on the historical implications that we’ve forgotten it is wrestling.

He claims to understand the criticism but says the mainstream press the decision got was helpful. Sam believes the character of James Ellsworth is not portrayed to have more skill than any of the women and says the way he won it fits his character.

Sam says fans used to boo the bad guys and there would be actual reasons to do so and believes James Ellsworth is doing that.

He thinks because both the ladder match and the women’s championship match are being repeated next week on Smackdown that it makes fans question why they watched the ppv.

Sam goes back to the fact James Ellsworth has done this before when he cost Dean Ambrose a ladder match. He believes the problem is that this match is being looked at as a mainstream event and isn’t being treated as a straight wrestling match.

He thinks we are now at the point where we want to see James Ellsworth get his butt kicked, which is because of the heat he has on him. Sam didn’t have a problem with the result and thinks it is a decent use of the Ellsworth character.

Sam did have an issue with the positioning of the card as he thinks having non-finishes back to back like they did will leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Kick-Off Show

Sam states he loves doing the Kick-Off shows and praises the team that works on them, saying they are so good at their jobs.

He noted he got some serious internet drama thrown his way because of what he said about Shinsuke Nakamura. He said Nakamura was a rock star in his entrance but he hadn’t seen that in the ring at that point.

Sam believes the proof of what he said was in the way Nakamura performed at Money in the Bank with A.J. Styles and said that is what he would love to see every few weeks on Smackdown.

He says he usually does look for the positive in things, but when he thinks something can be better then he will say that’s how he feels.

Sam thinks the SummerSlam match should be A.J. Styles vs Shinsuke Nakamura as both men are incredible and mentions he is so impressed with Styles in particular.

Raw Talk

Moving on from Money in the Bank and Sam thinks this week’s Raw was better than last week but still thinks it has room for growth. He believes Braun Strowman’s return was done perfectly and he thinks the fact Samoa Joe beat Roman Reigns makes him believe a little more that he can beat The Beast.

Sam wants to see more of the Roman Reigns that we got this week and believes that is as close to a heel Reigns we will ever see.

2K18 Cover

Sam spoke about the WWE 2K18 cover that was revealed this week alongside their commercial, which is all about Seth Rollins. He says it would be fun to see the Seth Rollins from that commercial on television.

He spoke about an interview Rollins did about how he became the cover star, which was because he was frustrated with the fact they kept promoting legends and part-timers on the cover in past years.

Sam doesn’t think Rollins should be happy to be joining legends who have been on a cover but instead wants to see a young star who believes in himself and grabs his own spot.

He thinks current stars should not simply be fans of the past, other than Bayley as that is her gimmick. Sam would like them to be more confident and show they think they are better than anything that has come before them.

Sam wraps up the podcast for the week and mentions how he is still working on a live show for SummerSlam weekend; details to be revealed soon.

Rating 7/10

Another entertaining show this week from Sam Roberts, in particular, the State of Wrestling section where he broke down the James Ellsworth situation and offered a new opinion on the 2K18 commercial. The interview wasn’t as strong as recent weeks due to the fact it was much shorter, but Sam got plenty of content from Alexa in the time they had and it left me hoping they would do a longer interview in the future.

About the Writer

Matthew Wilkinson is from Bradford, England. He’s been a fan since the late ’90s with the Attitude Era and was then heavily invested again through the rise of CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. He can be found on Twitter at @MC_Wilkinson1

Notsam Podcast – Episode 229: Jake “The Snake” Roberts Release Date: March 14th, 2019 Recap By: James Hayes DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD From New York, Sam welcomes you to the show! What a great time [...]